how to teach new tricks to black lab

what are some new tricks i can teach my black lab she knows dance, beg, sit, shake, and lay how do i teach her more tricks?

 

You could teach him/her to "sit pretty" (sit up) you teach this by having the dog sit and hold a treat above the dogs head to make them lift their paws off the floor while still sitting, while saying "sit pretty" or "sit up" whichever you prefer.

Another one is to hold a treat on their nose til you say "okay", and they will snap their jaw and catch the treat in their mouth. You teach this by holding your dogs nose still while saying "steady" and putting a treat on his nose, then say "okay!" and let go on their nose, eventually you should be able to just say steady and put the treat on their nose without holding their snout. This takes a lot of practive for them to master actually catching it.

I taught my dog how to jump over things like they do in agility, you can do this by walking over the obstacle with their leash in hand and having them jump over it and say "over" or "jump". This is actually quite easy to teach.

Does she know how to heel? This is more of a manner thing than a trick but its handy for them to know. There are probably many ways to teach this but in the obedience class I went to they had us do it by walking one way, and when the dog starts to pull ahead turn around sharply, with a pop of the collar and say "gotcha!" and when they return to your side say "heel". This is normally done on the left side of your body, but it is up to you. The dogs shoulders should be level with your knee once this is mastered. Every time you stop while teaching heel, tell her to sit, eventually she should sit automatically every time you stop. You can also, when mastered, go on walks off leash without worrying about her running into the street or over to people to be petted, if she listens however. This can be handy if you have a hyper dog that likes to walk you instead of you walking her.

Ashley

 

Have you completed a basic obedience course with your dog? While tricks are a fun way to interact with your dog it's basic obedience that will make your life with a Lab much more enjoyable. I see your dog can sit and lie down which are two of the basics. How about sit/stay where your dog will remain in a sitting position while you walk away and remain sitting until you give the "come" command at which time the dog should come to you and sit in front of you without any other command. "Heel" while walking on a leash is an absoulute must. If you don't control your dog he will control you.
Beg is something a Lab will do naturally and this can get out of control if encouraged. Just having the dog "sit" before receiving a treat or meals will reinforce you authority to issue other commands.
You didn't mention how old your dog was or if this was your first Lab.
Believe me, Labs will entertain you on their own without any tricks. You may even find that your Lab has taught you a trick or two without you even realizing it.
Labs are big fun loving dogs that can be described as a bit goofy and will not "grow up" for about three years so be prepared for an extended puppyhood.

 

You could teach rollover or crawl. To get them to crawl they have to know laydown first. If you get them to lay down get in front of your dog with a treat and put the treat in front of your dogs face on the ground and say crawl while you slowly move the treat futher away from the dog. You can keep your hand on their back if they try and stand up. I did this with my lab and she is really good at it, she would crawl all the way acroos the room...lol.

Something else thats a cool and useful trick would be "find it". You can start with a really smelly treat like those freeze dried liver treats. Put one in your hand have your dog see it in your hand, then have your dog see you hide the treat in an easy spot where the dog can see it sticking out. Put your hand up to the dogs nose so they can sniff the treat that was there and say find it. you can lead your dog to the treat if they dont get it right away, the whole time saying find it. Once the dogs learns that they are going to be looking for treats you can start hiding it completly, but still in the same room. Once your dog really starts finding it you can hide the treats in differnt rooms, just make sure your dog doesnt see where you put it anymore. I did this with my lab too, and she caught on right away, once she was really good at finding it, i started hiding other things, suchs as keys, and pack of cigs, etc...and she can find it all.(just make sure you dont skip the step of the smelling your hand or something first to catch the sent of the thing they are looking for)

I also taught my lab to turn lights on and off, this comes in handy if your super lazy watching a movie and you want the lights off...lol....anyways what i did was I got those smelly treats out agian and I had my Lab follow me to the light switch. I would stand next to it and have her sit in front of it. Then I would take the hand with the smelly treat in it and put it above the lightswitch and say "lights", she would jump up to get the treat , scartching at the walls, the minute she turned the light off in her attempt to get the treat she got her reward. and I just kept doing that till she started to relaize that she got the treat when she hit the light switch and it clicked. Then I started moving slwoly awayfrom the switch so she would learn to do it without me near.

 

You might want to get a good book on clicker training. There's no end to fun with a clicker-savvy dog.

 

I just wanted to make a comment on the part when you said teach your dog to crawl.... I have a puppy I didn't need to teach it to. She just automatically does it. She sees someone walk up to her that wants to pet her, she would drop to the floor on her belly and start crawling towards them. She reminds me of a frog because of how her legs spread apart. It's like she can do the splits. Most of the time in a day she would do nothing but crawl. I don't know why she started that. I had an older dog who would do that and that's where my pup learned it, so my older dog doesn't do it anymore she feels extremely jealous. It's so funny and cute.

How about teach your dog to roll over for a start and then get your dog to roll up in a blanket. I saw it on the net. I just forgot how they did it. Something to do with rolling a stick in the corner of the blanket and get the dog to pick it up and then roll. After a while you try to get the dog to do it without the stick being put on the blanket

 

I taught my dogs to whisper (a very soft bark) instead of just speak. And a couple of them have learned to sneeze. Don't ask me how we taught that one, though. It just sort of happened while we were working on "whisper".

We've also taught Olsen that each toy has a name, and he will sort through and pick out the toy you ask for. He also knows to pick his toys up and put them back in the basket before he goes to bed. In fact, I recently had to board him for two days, and every morning the kennel staff would find that he'd put his toys in his water bowl. Next time, I guess I have to remember to take a basket for his toys.

If you have a favorite sports team or personality, you can teach him to bark when you ask him if he likes them, and sit or lay down if you ask if he likes your least favorite team. For example, we enjoy NASCAR so Olsen runs in a circle when you ask if he's a NASCAR doggy. Then if you ask if Jeff Gordon is his favorite driver he sits. If you ask if Mark Martin is his favorite driver, he runs in a circle and barks.

 

What I find with teaching tricks is to just go with the dogs own personality and antics....like a small dog that does a lot of 'balancing' on its rear legs....its easy to teach them 'dance', have them turn around as theyre balancing by using a small treat and moving it around so they follow it....and keep saying 'dance'.

I am careful though with larger dogs doing some tricks, had a couple of good conversations with an orthapedic vet a few years back, he was telling me how having a large dog sit up (begging) can put too much stress on their hips (large dog being a large GSD, Mastiff, Dane, Rott etc)....

 

You can use a clicker to "capture" naturally occuring behavior. After you have "charged the clicker" so the dog knows what it means, just have it with you, and when the dog does something you want to put on command, click and treat! Once the dog figures out what you are clicking for and does it consistently, you can put it on cue. This is a good way to get the dog to do something like sneeze on command, and then you can use something like "Do you need a tissue?" as the cue.